IFIs - the good, the bad and the ugly

Submitted by Chris Monasterski
On Thu, 04/26/2007

Microrate[1] - the microfinance equivalent of Standard & Poor's - released a new report[2]. It charges international development organizations (IFIs) with funding only the largest and safest microfinance institutions (MFIs) while leaving the most risky ones out. The result:

IFIs are not complementing private lenders, they are crowding them out of most attractive parts of the MFI market. IFIs nearly doubled (88% increase) their direct funding to top-rated MFIs in 2005 […]. Data on over 160 MFIs confirm this trend.